Bir Saniyelik Hafıza: Zhang Yimou’nun “Bir Saniye” (One Second) Filminde Kültür Devrimi, Sansür ve Sinema

Abstract

Bu çalışma, Zhang Yimou’nun One Second (2020) filmini Kültür Devrimi hafızası, sinema deneyimi ve Xi dönemi Çin’inde sansürle müzakere edilen kültürel üretim rejimi kesişiminde nitel bir tekil vaka analizi olarak ele almaktadır. Makale, filmin Kültür Devrimi’ni epik tarih anlatıları yerine “bir saniyelik” kırılgan bir görüntü parçasına sıkıştıran estetik stratejisinin, geçmişin nasıl hatırlanabilir kılındığına dair güncel bellek siyasetini görünürleştirdiğini savunur. Analizde kolektif/kültürel bellek (Halbwachs, Nora, Assmann, Connerton, Erll), travma ve sinemasal amnezi (Caruth, LaCapra, Elsaesser, Bao) ve yeni sinema tarihi perspektifleri birlikte kullanılarak film şeridinin maddeselliği, gezici sinema ritüelleri, kolektif emek sahneleri ve mikro- iktidar ilişkileri yakın okumayla çözümlenmiştir. Bulgular, haber bülteni makarasının aynı anda devletin propaganda arşivi, babanın kişisel tanıklık arayışı ve yoksulluğun gündelik nesnesi (abajur) olarak işleyerek bellek rejimlerini çatıştırdığını; “film temizleme” sekansının sinema izleme deneyimini içerikten bağımsız bir ritüel ve bedensel hafıza pratiği olarak kurduğunu göstermektedir. Filmin festivalden çekilme ve onay süreçleri, sansürün yalnızca yasaklayıcı değil, dolaylılık ve öz-sınırlama üzerinden üretimi şekillendiren ilişkisel bir mekanizma olduğunu düşündürür. Çalışma, One Second’ı Çin’de Kültür Devrimi’nin güncel yeniden yazımları ve sansürle pazarlık hâlindeki sinema üretimi açısından açıklayıcı bir vaka olarak konumlandırmaktadır.

Keywords

• Medya
• Temsil
• Çin Şeması
• Kültür Devrimi
• Sansür ve Sinema

One-Second Memory: The Cultural Revolution, Censorship, and Cinema in Zhang Yimou’s One Second

Abstract

This article examines Zhang Yimou’s One Second (2020) as a qualitative single–case study situated at the intersection of Cultural Revolution memory, cinematic experience, and the negotiated regime of cultural production under censorship in Xi-era China. It argues that the film’s aesthetic strategy—compressing the Cultural Revolution into the fragile trace of “one second” of footage rather than an epic historical narrative—renders visible the contemporary politics of memory and the conditions under which the past becomes representable. Drawing on scholarship on collective/cultural memory (Halbwachs, Nora, Assmann, Connerton, Erll), trauma and cinematic amnesia (Caruth, LaCapra, Elsaesser, Bao), and new cinema history, the analysis employs close reading to examine the materiality of film stock, the rituals of itinerant projection, scenes of collective labour, and micro-level power relations. The findings show that the newsreel reel functions simultaneously as the state’s propaganda archive, the father’s pursuit of personal testimony, and an object of everyday scarcity (the lampshade), thereby staging conflicts between overlapping memory regimes. The “cleaning the film” sequence, moreover, frames cinema-going as a ritualised, embodied practice of remembrance that persists even when images temporarily vanish. The film’s festival withdrawal and subsequent approval/release trajectory also suggests that censorship operates not only as prohibition but as a relational mechanism that shapes production through indirection and anticipatory self-limitation. The study positions One Second as an illuminating case for understanding contemporary rewritings of the Cultural Revolution and cinema production in China under negotiation with censorship.

Keywords

• Media
• Representation
• Chinese Cinema
• Cultural Revolution
• Censorship and Cinema

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